Should have no problems there. You may want to end up artifically boosting your WIS with potions for better saving throws, but you should be okay. Keep in mind that if you do take a kensai, you will not have access to bows, crossbows or slings, so that may modify your decisions. You should either dual-wield or use two handed weapons, since you can't use bows anyway. Kensai should be geared towards being able to dish out as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. As such, look for weapons and items that boost your Attacks per Round, your damage, and elemental damages and special effects are always helpful in a solo game.

[ 02-04-2006, 08:54 PM: Message edited by: True_Moose ]

Personally, I'd drop the strength down to the minimum. Before long, your character will be wearing a belt of strength, which means you have completely wasted 6 points. However, if you put those 6 points on wisdom, as True_Moose pointed out, you'll get better saving throws, and there is no other device that will give you any sort of permanent wisdom boost. Of course, you can keep guzzling wisdom potions, but you can guzzle strength potions in just the same fashion.

To my mind, the superfluity of items that will set strength to a plus 19 value, and the total absence of anything that will do this for any other stat, make strength the last thing I ever bother putting stat points on, for any character.

thanks for the feedback.

I wasn't aware that wisdom increased saving throws. What i may do is modify my character before importing him and give myself

int 3
wis 18
cha 5

or

int 5
wis 18
cha 3

this isn't really cheating because none of these stats would have effected my game when playing BG.

I am considering a single wielder of ++ in katanas for celestial fury in the early game and eventually +++++ longswords mixing between blackrazor and answerer to ware down the enemy, celestial fury simply to stun and then the longsword +5 to kill. keepign in mind i am using the grand mastery mod to max my attacks.

To clarify, according to the manual, high wisdom confers a bonus to saves against magical attack. Debates exists as to how well this works in practice, but it still is more useful than strength.

Personally I wouldn't let Int drop below 6, just so you can survive more than one hit from a mind flayer.

Cha can be dropped if you're powergaming, just remember to put on the right ring before buying or selling.

If I were powergaming a fighter, I'd say the two stats to max out are Dex and Con. Then up first Wis and then Int. You might even be able to identify a few things, and you also get a few better conversation options. I'd minimise Str and Cha and remedy it by artefacts ASAP - I think you can buy the Mauler's Arm immediately you get to the Copper Coronet, for a about 2000gp.

yes, but i completed BG1 with him and there ARE no belts in there. I will simply use throwing daggers on mind flayers so int is not important and as long as i have max dex con wis and str the other stats are irrelevant.

Can anybody let me know what they think of the single weapon style build that i proposed:

I am considering a single wielder of ++ in katanas for celestial fury in the early game and eventually +++++ longswords mixing between blackrazor and answerer to ware down the enemy, celestial fury simply to stun and then the longsword +5 to kill. keepign in mind i am using the grand mastery mod to max my attacks.

1) I'm almost certain that wisdom has no effect on saving throws. Any such effect absolutely doesn't show up on the character record, and having played low and high wisdom character I don't think I've ever noticed a difference. I'm almost certain that wisdom is of no use at all to a fighter (other than some dialogue choices of course). I wouldn't build my charatcer around an assertion in the manual that doesn't appear to have any other backing.

2) You can obviously get a strength belt very early on. But this uses up the belt slot that could be put to better use (+3 AC vs slashing or crushing or piercing is very useful for a kensai early on, and the inertial belt is very handy later on). Ultimately you can get Crom Fyr for any character which doesn't waste a slot. I'd much rather take the hypothetical saving throw loss (which as I've said I don't believe exists) than the very real loss of the belt slot.

katanas and long swords are fine as weapon choices - you will need something that does blunt damage against some enemies though and, co-incidentally your only source of level drain protection for a solo kensai is a mace (of course you don't need a * in mace to wield it if you're happy with 1 attack per round . . )

in general i think 1WS is a mistake for a kensai - more attacks per round equals more attacks that your kensai damage bonus gets applied to - off-hand weapons that increase your attacks per round tip the balance even further as do the immunities you can cover with weapon combinations

once you get greater whirlwind then a couple of stars in 1WS will get you a slightly increased chance of a critical and a tiny AC bonus but until then . . .

i shall leave the last word to Miyamoto Mushashi

Students of the Ichi school Way of strategy should train from the start with the sword and long sword in either hand. This is a truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry. It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn.

It is of course a personal judgement call, but to my mind, Crom Faeyr uses up one of the most useful slots of all - weapon/shield.

So for example, if I were going all the way through to the end of TOB, I'd rather finish up with

Girdle of Fire Giant Strength
Flail of the Ages +5 (main hand)
and Axe of the Unyielding +5 or Darksteel Shield (off hand)

rather than
Belt of Inertial Barrier
Axe of the Unyielding +5 (main hand)
Crom Faeyr (off hand)

ymmv

WIS has no effect on saves.